Ex-Congress MLA Roshan Baig arrested, sent to judicial custody in multi-crore IMA scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which took cognizance in the IMA scam that defrauded thousands of innocent Muslims has led to the arrest of Ex Congress MLA Roshan Baig on Sunday, after which he was sent to 14 days judicial custody in the evening on the same day.

Roshan Baig was asked to appear in CBI office in Bengaluru after which the central agency conducted marathon grilling since Sunday morning. The CBI also conducted forensic auditing which revealed that huge transactions had been done from IMA accounts to Roshan Baig's.

What is IMA scam?

Allegedly, the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) and its fraudulent sister concerns had lured gullible investors in making them believe that the IMA group would offer higher returns while being in line with Sharia principles of Islam.

Thousands had invested in the schemes believing them to be true and most of the investors were said to be middle-class Muslims. Its co-founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan had involved Maulvis, Islamic preachers and politicians to attract the investors from the Muslim community.

The firm was enjoying the patronage of Muslims and had also diversified into Gold bullion trading, real estate, health care and several other businesses. With initial returns being great, more and more people invested in the schemes, however in 2018, the firm ran into crisis and panic struck among the investors when returns stopped. Khan who had gone underground by then and was later arrested in 2019 by the ED.

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Baig's connection with IMA

Reportedly a government school in Baig's constituency was funded by IMA, and Baig is also reported to have aided Khan in trying to resolve the problems at the government level encountered by the firm. However, Baig maintained that his ties with IMA are restricted to the funding of the school in his constituency.

Khan had reportedly accused Baig of borrowing Rs 400 crore from the firm and failed to return it. Even Baig's son is said to have close connections with IMA which has duped innocent people to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore. The Karnataka Government under the chief ministership of Kumaraswamy had then ordered an SIT to probe the scam before handing it over to the CBI.

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